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Lights of Broadway shine brightly

The profane Book of Mormon performs big in the Tony Awards honouring Broadway's best.

By Mark KennedyAssociated Press

Sun., June 12, 2011

NEW YORK, N.Y.— The profane and hysterical The Book of Mormon mmopped up big at the Tony Awards, snagging honours Sunday for best musical, best book, best direction of a musical, best featured actress and two technical awards.

War Horse and The Normal Heart also netted key Tonys, including best play and best revival, respectively.

The best direction of a musical award went to Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker for The Book of Mormon. Parker — as well as co-writers Matt Stone and Robert Lopez — later returned to the stage to accept the Tony for the best book of a musical.

The top directing prize for a play went to Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris for the weepy War Horse, a World War I tale about horses told with puppets and actors. “We quite like it when people cry,” Morris cracked backstage.

Nikki M. James, who plays a potential love interest to a pair of missionaries who travel to Uganda in The Book of Mormon, dedicated the award to her dad, who died while she was in high school, and to her nephew Ozzie, who was born with kidney problems.

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The show is one of the hottest in town and James said even cast members are having trouble getting tickets for their friends and family. “It’s amazing to know you’re going to walk out there every night and know you’re going to see a house full of people,” she said.

Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart won the best revival prize and two actors from the AIDS drama — Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey — also won. Barkin, making her Broadway debut, was declared the best actress in a featured role in a play, while Hickey took home the male equivalent honour.

“It’s the proudest moment of my career. Being involved in something this important is I think a once-in-a-career opportunity,” said Barkin. Hickey warned his family in Texas that they’d better not be watching the Heat-Mavericks game instead of the Tonys.

Kramer’s historic play about the beginning of an epidemic that has killed millions won the Tony 26 years after it was first mounted at the Public Theater. “Learn from it and carry on the fight,” he said. “Our day will come.”

John Larroquette, in his Broadway debut, won the award for best actor in a featured role in a musical for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He thanked his co-star Daniel Radcliffe, who was not nominated, saying that without the Harry Potter star he’d be “home, sitting in my underwear, watching this on television.”

The Book of Mormon won two awards before the telecast even began — best orchestration and best original score. Kathleen Marshall won for best choreography for Anything Goes. War Horse won for best sound design of a play and best scenic design, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert got the costume award for flamboyant fantasies created by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner.

Host Neil Patrick Harris began the show at the Beacon Theatre with an exuberant, tongue-in-cheek song about how Broadway isn’t just for gay people any more. The number featured a bevy of dancing nuns, sailors, flight attendants and Mormons: “Attention every breeder, you’re invited to the theatre!” He later mocked Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, sang with Hugh Jackson and rode astride one of the puppet horses of War Horse.

The ceremony was rolling along fine until Brooke Shields had to be bleeped after forgetting the lyrics and flubbing an opening song with Harris. “I can do eight performances a week but I can’t read a TelePrompTer,” she joked.

The Book of Mormon went into the Tonys with 14 nominations, one shy of the record held by The Producers. The show, by the creators of South Park and Avenue Q, has already been declared the season’s best musical by the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama League and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.

The musical was the biggest new hit from a Broadway season that saw 42 shows open — 14 musicals, 25 plays and three specials. Box-office grosses soared to $1.08 billion while attendance reached 12.5 million, both up from last season.

The Book of Mormon won the biggest prize, a considerable achievement for first-time Broadway playwrights Parker and Stone, who created the Emmy Award-winning South Park and feature-length films such as South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police.

A mix of high art and low, the Mormon musical pays homage to such stalwarts as The King and I and The Lion King, and references diarrhea, AIDS ravaged villages and sex with babies. A Mormon sacred book finds its way into a leading character’s rectum.

This year’s Tonys were on Manhattan’s Upper West Side after the ceremony was forced to leave its longtime home at Radio City Music Hall because Cirque du Soleil moved in. Tony producers picked the 3,000-seat Beacon Theatre, which has only about half as many seats as Radio City. CBS televised the event.

The big Tony winners

Best Musical

The Book of Mormon.

Best Play

War Horse.

Best Actor in a Musical

Norbert Leo Butz in Catch Me If You Can

Best Actor in a Play

Mark Rylance, Jerusalem

Best Leading Actress in a Play

Frances McDormand in Good People.

Best Leading Actor in a Musical

Mark Ry Lance, Jesusalem.

Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

John Benjamin Hickey, The Normal Heart.

Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart.

Best Actor in a Feature Role in a Musical

John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Best Actress in a Feature Role in a Musical

Nikki M. James, The Book of Mormon.

Best Revival of a Play

The Normal Heart.

Best Revival of a Musical

Anything Goes.

Best Director of a Play

Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse.

Best Director of a Musical

Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon.

Best Original Score for the Theatre

Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone, The Book of Mormon.

Best Choreography

Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes.

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